
Book <k H- - 



, -i'PJ^l^^D, ■BTiiT.EE.f 
^'^^TMENT OF ^^^ 



THE ART OF DRINKING, 



.A. iiiSTOiazo^^Xi szecetoh:. 



FROM THE GERMAN OF 



a. G. GKRVINUS. 



TRANSLATED FOR THE 



UNITED STATES BREWERS' ASSOCIATION. 






New York: 
UNITED STATES BREWERS' ASSOCIATION. 



By transffer 

■lAY 23 im 






/9 

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. "TSAi 



G. G. Gervinus (1805-1871) is recognized as one of the 
foremost historians of Germany. He was a man of marvel- 
ous erudition. His fame rests not only upon a great number 
of profoundly learned works, but also upon his brilliant advo- 
cacy of the constitutional rights of the people, as against the 
reactionary tendency of the German princes during Metter- 
nich's despotic rule. He was one of the seven celebrated 
professors of the University of Gottingen who boldly pro- 
tested against the violation of the Constitution by the King of 
Hanover. His best-known works are "History of the Poet- 
ical Literature of the Germans," "History of the Nineteenth 
Century," and a voluminous commentary on Shakspeare, 
"made popular in England" — as the Encyclopaedia Britannica 
states — " by an excellent translation," 

The following sketch was designed by Gervinus as an out- 
line of what a history of potology would be, if conceived and 
executed by a philosophical mind. 

An English translation of this sketch needs no justification 
in our time. 



''0^ 



r«f'" 



THE ART OF DRINKING, 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



A sketch of the art of drinking might seem to announce a 
subject unworthy of a man whose energies have been devoted 
to earnest purposes and serious aims in life. But it is not my 
intention to make the sketch a mere treasure-box of all sorts 
of curiosities, nor to gratify thereby the curiosity of idle 
readers. When it is approached from a scientific standpoint, 
the dignity of science must necessarily exclude all frivolous 
treatment, as well as all shallow and superficial purpose. 
Manv would be satisfied if an insignificant sketch of this 
kind simply bore some pathetic motto, as these words of 
Seneca's : Aniinuon aliquando dehemus relaxare et quibus- 
dam oblectamentis reficere / sed ipsa oblectamenta ojpera sint. 
I, however, would scorn a justification of this kind, for I hold 
that recreation ought to be recreation, and not work, and 
should consider it far better if our labors were pleasures, rather 
than our pleasures, labors. 

I wish in this sketch to point out the importance and serious 
significance of a work of this sort, and shall have, above all, to 
prove that the apparently somewhat jocular subject has a very 
serious side, and may be contemplated from a grave standpoint. 

If I succeed from the very first in inducing the reader to 
adopt the same historical view of the matter that I take my- 
self, I shall have gained a great point, for he will then lay 
aside all prejudice and preconceived opinion. The real histo- 
rian must be a stranger to all prejudice and preconceived 
opinion ; he cannot treat of any subject separately, but is at- 
tracted by everything in a certain order and connection. He 
must not choose any subject from personal inclination, but 
according to the needs and demands of his time and of human 
society ; nor must he treat the chosen subject with that patho- 



6 

logical interest and sympathy so common among the writers 
of the New World. He must understand and know, from 
historical experience, that in times like ours, which have out- 
grown the activity of imagination — that is to say. Art — and, 
on the other hand, are not yet ripe for speculation — that is to 
say, I^hilosophy, — universal observation, which includes all de- 
partments of human activity, is the only thing that in these very 
times and for this generation can furnish positive information 
and prove a certain gain . The real historian, whose profession 
it is to be equally interested in everything, thus becomes an 
image of impartiality. The impartial observer is attracted by 
all phenomena, and to him nothing appears small, insignificant 
or unimportant, as soon as he begins to draw conclusions from 
his observations and to discover laws in the physical as well as 
the moral world. In the world of reason there exists nothing 
small, accidental or unimportant. If the same laws of chem- 
ical combination govern immense masses of matter as well as 
the smallest atom, if the march and development of mankind 
are the same as those of the most insignificant individual, the 
observation of the smallest as well as the greatest is of equal 
importance, and man may well feel comfort in the fact that 
each hair upon his head is, indeed, numbered. This alone 
might refute any serious objection to my theme. 

A history of oinology or potology would be able to show 
that man, in satisfying a partly physical and partly intellectual 
desire, is bound by the same laws that govern him in the 
satisfaction of the highest needs of his striving mind. And if 
this be the case, the theme might be considered worthy of 
being chosen by the most severe scientific moralist; and mat- 
ters of this kind are apt to be overlooked only because other 
things appear comparatively more im]3ortant. There is a his- 
tory of wine and wine-drinking (for of these alone I speak), 
because it is connected with our spiritual development. 
Wine itself shows a certain element of development and per- 
fectibility — a relation to organic life in its fermentation, and 
a sympathetic feeling, as it were, in its movement during the 
period of the blooming of the vine, while in the plant itself 
it shows an inner development. I have just called wine-drink- 



ing a partly physical, partly intellectual enjoyment, and it is 
almost impossible to call up the image of any social gathering or 
entertainment without it. And since all human culture proceeds 
from the manners and forms of society and social intercourse, 
we would plainly see in such a history — what has often been 
divined and pointed out, but also frequently smiled at — that 
wine is most closely connected with the civilization of States and 
with the development of free human culture, and that the art 
of drinking at all times keeps step with this culture and de- 
velopment, and sinks or rises with them. For not at all times 
have men practiced this art with equal wisdom, nor yet even 
practiced it in like manner; and there is spiritual progress 
from the blood-thirsty revels of ^gisthe to those of the phil- 
osophers with Plato ; from the cup-bearer Hephsestos to Hebe 
and Ganymede ; from the heavy, dull metal cup to the trans- 
parent, rounded crystal glass, in Lucian's time, or our own, 
which shows the color, retains the perfume and promotes 
sound. As the culture of the grape is only found where a 
higher human civilization has hegun to develop, it also shows 
itself at once where a new civilization appears y it may he 
even in regions unfavorable to it, where it is only culti- 
vated till wine has hecome so great a want that it can no 
longer he dispensed with, despite the lach of sufficient native 
production. The first cultivators of the vine, history praises 
as benefactors of mankind and propagators of civilization. 
Noah was the elect of God, in spite of the improprieties 
produced by his wine ; old Dionysos, for all the ravings of 
his service, a kindly god ; and Urban, of the Middle Ages, a 
saint, although he committed the greatest misdeeds under the 
influence of wine. And wherever, on the other hand, in more 
enlightened history, a man took an active part in the develop- 
ment of human civilization, he did so also instinctively, it 
would seem, for that of wine — be it a.Heracles Ipoctonos among 
the Erj'thrseans ; or an Alexander, who, with his Greek 
culture, brought the grape-vine back to hot Babylon ; or a 
Charles lY., who, with his Italian education, wished to force 
it upon cold Bohemia. We shall see that wherever hier- 
archical constitutions deprived the people of the advantages of 



education, the wisdom of the priests was subtle enough to 
forbid wine too, and the course of the Mohammedan hierarchy 
will show ns most plainly how the art of drinking brought 
with it bold reformatory deviations from the laws. We shall 
observe, even with Christian nations, how, among certain 
races where the use of wine was confined to the Communion 
table, civilization also came to a stand-still. We can then 
point to a patriarchal and hei'oic period of the art of drinking, 
where wine, as was formerly done by the Gauls, and even by 
our own Suabian ancestors, was despised, and afterwards, by 
all sorts of artificial means, made more substantial than it is 
by nature — more like mead or beer, which is at such periods 
the natural drink of the people. At an aristocratic and 
knightly epoch, in which society is unnaturally sublimated, it 
is sought to increase and make more spiritual still the effect of 
wine also, by the addition of spicy herbs. With the first civil 
development of nations they return to simple nature; a num- 
ber of corporations and brotherhoods make it their business to 
watch over the art of drinking, over the purity of the wine 
itself, and its lawful use; from king to beggar, all cultivate 
the cheering art, just as all are anxious, also, for spiritual en- 
lightenment. We see, then, in the last centuries the pedantic 
return to tea and cofiee, and among those nations who have 
shared but in very small measure in the intellectual progress 
of Europe, we find that the coffee-house (cafe) — an institution 
which is scarcely a century and a half old — almost crowded 
out the wine-saloons. 

I have alluded to wine-drinking as a partly intellectual and 
partly physical enjoyment. Among material enjoyments, it 
is one of the most spiritual; among spiritual ones, one of 
the most material, keeping about the right middle course. A 
history of the art of drinking would prove this. Everywhere 
in the history of nations we shall come upon times where 
amid a fulness of physical power, the desire for more refine- 
ment in outward life, as well as a striving for greater inner 
perfection, began to manifest itself. In Germany, the 
time of the Reformation was such a period. And at such 
times, when outer and inner powers begin to stir with wonder- 



9 

fill energy — times as yet divided between old roughness and 
new humanity; between the coarse, ordinary fare of every 
day for mind and imagination, and the new hope of some finer 
nourishment — at such times the genial enjoyment of wine, and 
the delights of regular social pleasures, have always struck 
deepest root and had freest play. Such images as those, this 
history would most willingly depict; nor would it be super- 
fluous to present them in our day, when society seems more 
and more to forget that its aim is to be simply pleasure and 
.recreation. The future seems to offer nothing that could take 
the place of the great simplicity of past manners ; of those 
feasts of youth which asked nothing but uncontrolled enjoy- 
ment ; of those evening entertainments of the citizens, which 
were devoted to their immediate surroundings in house or 
community ; of the frank and manly rectitude of that race 
which seemed, indeed, to find truth and constancy in wine, 
and its best pleasures in an afternoon spent in the "wine- 
garden," surrounded by wife and children, relatives and 
friends. All public pleasure has disappeared from among us, 
and we arrange parties and receptions that only tire ourselves 
and others. Ceremonious etiquette gives us work and trouble 
w^hen we should find recreation, and fatigues our minds when 
imagination should have free play. Only where men, here 
and there, permit them.selves to meet about the bottle, accord- 
ing to the good old custom, and where no committee is neces- 
sary to approve of the toasts, pure, genuine pleasure revives 
once more, together with the pure, genuine art of drinking. 
For there is no intellectual power that is so directly quickened 
and strengthened by any nourishment as imagination is by 
wine. Tea keeps conversation within the bounds of pedantic 
propriety, and beer soothes but checks quick repartee; but wine 
sharpens the sting of wit, stimulates spirited conversation, and 
brightens the whole social atmosphere. The poet, who lives 
in imagination, and turns his back upon reality, was always a 
lover of wine — the beverage which intensifies reality, and, at 
the same time, lifts him above it. The drinking-song, from 
Anacreon down to all his imitators in Germany, occupies a 
special and very prominent place in literature. To wine are 



10 

dedicated the first productions of the tragic art ; and to it has 
been assigned a particular dithjrambic measure, which a poet 
who should set water above wine could never soar high 
enough to make his own. And whosoever has any cause to 
turn away from the real world, and longs for the freedom of 
living in an ideal one, is fond of wine. If I wished to spoil 
my idyllic picture by satire, I should here name the converts 
and the monks; but I should rather call up the wandering 
beggar, whom want and hardship have made weary of the 
world. Sleep has been praised as the friend of poverty ; but 
there were times when wine also was called its friend, which, 
even in waking hours, calls up dreams that charm away the 
burden of a miserable existence. For wine tempts even the 
beggar to extravagance, that vice which has often been set 
down to the account of wine ; although, if there be such a 
thing as degrees in vice, it may be called one of the nobler 
ones. And this genial pleasure in spending helps the poor 
man in his misery ; consoles him for his destitution ; offers 
him who is homeless a spot where he may feel comfortable, 
and teaches him to forget all that oppresses him. Wine makes 
man liberal and generous ; the offered cup was formerly 
the symbol of hospitality granted, and even the miser is more 
ready to share tobacco and wine than any of his other posses- 
sions. For it makes us communicative and confidential in 
social intercourse; it founds friendships, and is still the sym- 
bol of brotherhood. If it sometimes stirs up heat and dissen- 
sion, it also smooths the way to union again ; and, formerly, 
no reconciliation could take place without having a seal set 
upon it by a common cup of wine. At your cup you find the 
freest and most enlightened spot in the world, where you may 
not only think what you please, and say what you think, but 
where your thoughts themselves take the highest flight man is 
capable of. I do not know whether it is due to jealous gods 
that the excessive enjoyment of wine proves its own penalty. 
Without this depressing fire in the wine itself, it seems to me 
heaven and its secrets would be far more endangered by the 
spiritual flight of the drinker than by the towering rocks of 
the Titans. Thus, wherever despots and hierarchs intended 



11 

to keep nations in drowsy stupidity, they forbade wine. Only 
at times, when liberty and enlightenment were common prop- 
erty, when no castes possessed an exclusive monoply of 
wisdom, right or might, was it possible to introduce political 
discussion at the cup. For only at such times of universal 
public spirit and feeling could one take counsel of the im- 
agination in practical affairs and matters of State, and hope 
for such results of the evening discussiorT^at the cup as would 
bear the test of the sober next day's light. For only such heroic 
conditions as are represented by the Germans and Persians of 
ancient times can really show the virtues of truth and faith- 
fulness, and in the most public concerns could hear the voice 
that always speaks in wine ; and, in those days, no one needed 
to fear that wine would impel him to speak truth too freely. 
Only nations of really active nature, who called manliness and 
war-power by the name of virtue, could do full honor to wine, 
and it could only be a Greek who asked, as did Aristophanes: — 

" Dost thou boldly venture to say wine is not good for our reason ? 
Wliat more than wine impels us to deeds and to action? 
Why, look you, as soon as men are drinkers of wine, then 
Rich are they all and active, victorious in law-courts ; 
Aye, very happy too, and to their friends useful." 

Among the Germans, too, it has long been customary to 
settle all business with a drink, and there was no betrothal, no 
bargain, and no compact that was not accompanied by the 
purchase of wine. All German history is filled with the love 
of wine. When the German border-line was first drawn, the 
Germans insisted on keeping the left bank of the Rhine, on 
account of its richness in grapes. They wrote books about 
the national disposition to drink ; they divided their history 
according to drinking periods, and old proverbs call the love 
of drink the German national vice, as theft is that of the 
Spaniards, deceit that of the Italians, and vanity that of the 
French. Kowhere exist wines so capable of purity as the 
German wines, and no real German will ever compare with 
their genuine wine-qualities those of the tricky southern 
wines; and nowhere have mixtures been- so carefully avoided, 
as well as the purity of the art of drinking, and the old drink- 



12 

ing customs so scrupulousl}^ preserved, as in Germany. Only 
in Germany could be conceived the idea of a history of the art' 
of drinking. Perhaps the fates have ordained me to be the 
historian of wine, in the very meaning of my name — ger-M'in, 
not ger-win. And perhaps some readers may be found for it 
in Germany who do not consider it too indelicate to speak or 
to read of the natural needs of man. Let man never, in fool- 
isli pride, think himself above his own natural wishes and en- 
joyments, for it is the reasonable care given to these which 
keeps him close to human nature. As long as a people cannot 
live on newspaper reading and on staring about in public 
places, as do Frenchmen and Italians, it keeps its hands busy, 
its powers actively employed, and its eyes open, and wherever 
active powers are astir, no nation is in so very bad a condition. 
I should be well content if I could bring before active and 
manly minds a cheerful picture of those manly enjoyments, 
and induce them to taste of this somewhat coarser fare, in 
addition to the delicate dishes of our literature. 

I. 

The Fatheeland of "Wine. 

I would only here and there touch upon the botanical and 
industrial culture of the grape, as many very valuable works on 
the subject already exist (among others, Henderson's " History 
of Ancient and Modern Wines "), which make almost a com- 
plete literature of wine. I shall also speak of the home of the 
grape only for the sake of preserving the natural order of 
things, and shall touch later upon the mythical origin of wine, 
or the preparation of wine. If we look for the original 
country of the grape, we shall find that here, too, as in almost 
every other branch of culture, the western highlands of Asia 
are pointed out to us, whether we follow the fable of Father 
l^oah, the IsTyssean Bacchus, or the researches of the natural- 
ists. The latter teach us that on the Canary Isles and in 
America the grape gi'ows not so much wild as in a degenerate 
condition; but in the southwest of Europe, for instance the 
Italian woods, it is here and there found growing really wild ; 
that in the southeast this is still more common, and in Asia 



13 

ever on the increase. It is singular that at the Ararat, to which 
Jewish tradition also points, Tournefort, in his "Journey to 
the Levant," discovered a regular workshop of the European 
plant, and on the borders of transcaucasian Georgia he saw the 
land covered with wild grape-vines and fruit-trees. In the 
Caucasus, Marshall found the grape flourishing independently 
in the forest and covering whole trees, and we see in the rough 
and indifferent manner in which the inhabitants of these coun- 
tries harvest and treat the grape that they consider it a very 
common product. The manner in which they preserve the 
wine, and the quantity they daily consume, prove the same, 
and this entirely agrees with what Xenophon tells of the 
preservation of the wine in cisterns. Elphinstone, in his 
report on Cabul, relates that the Sultan presented him with 
grapes that grew without cultivation in his country. And not 
only the quantities of the wild grapes in those countries 
induce us to regard them as their native soil, it is also the 
excellent quality of the cultivated grape in Persia. The quan- 
tity and quality of the Persian wine opposed in this respect an 
effective barrier to the laws of the Koran, which enjoined 
against the enjoyment of the beverage, even in the Orient, 
which is so set in its religious rites and ceremonies. Olivier 
preferred the grapes about Ispahan to all he had tasted in 
Greece, on the islands of the Mediterranean, and in Syria. 
None, he says, equals the Kismish, which bears a berry of 
middling size, without seeds and with a thin skin. Shiraz, 
rich in poets, is celebrated on account of the excellence and 
plenty of its wine and its fine air, and Morier, in his 
" Journey through Persia," places the wine of Kazwin even 
above that of Shiraz, and the former city is so beautifully 
situated in so mild a climate that the Persians have given it 
the name of "Paradise." In regard to the fruitfulness of 
the vine, Strabo tells us that in Hyrcania one vine was 
apt to yield about thirty-three quarts of wine. In Margiana 
were said to be vines measuring at the base of the stem two 
fathoms in circumference and bearing grapes two yards long. 
In Asia the fruitfuhiess is said to be still greater, and there 
the wine keeps, in unpitched vessels, through three generations. 



14 

II. 

Wine is not Domesticated Among the Negroes. 

The course from east to west, marked hj the higher cult- 
ure of the human race, has been also closely followed by the 
culture of the grape. Other regions, north and south from 
the boundary marked out, may have had a certain share in 
that civilization; but it seems now to be proved that the 
negro races, the original inhabitants of Africa, have not in 
any way been connected with it. In those regions of Africa 
always inhabited by these races, no grape-culture is, up to the 
present day, to be found ; and, both in ancient and modern 
times, the grape has been a stranger in Africa, and a stranger 
scarcely to be called naturalized anywhere. To that king of 
the long-lived Ethiopians in Herodotus, to whom Cambyses 
sent his gifts, wine, therefore, seemed the only desirable thing 
they possessed, and to it he ascribed the brief old age which, in 
the best case, it was given the Persians to attain. His negroes, 
therefore, were not acquainted with wine, and in this they were 
like all uncivilized people, as we shall frequently see ; nor did 
they ever accept it, any more than they accepted any other part 
of civilization ; they never advanced any further than to their 
TowaJc, the palm-wine made of flower-stems; even the lotus- 
wine, of the preparation of which Herodotus knew, seems to 
belong only to the Libyans. Only emigrants, in the most 
ancient as well as most recent times, have introduced the 
grape-vine at different times into Africa, and we will briefly 
glance at this. First, the Egyptians must be named, Cauca- 
sian races not autochthonically at home in Libya. The ancient 
culture of the grape in Egypt is proved not only by histor- 
ical documents, but even by the ruins of old buildings, and I 
shall return to the paintings in the vaults near El Kab, 
which represent, among other things, the manner of gather- 
ing the grapes, and of preserving and cooling the wine. 
Several regions are specially mentioned as celebrated for their 
wine. Eleithya had grape-culture; the lakes of Mareos and 
Taenia, where all is now a barren desert, were commended for 
their wine; Alexandria exported wine to Rome, and Horace is 



15 

acqiiainted with that of Mareos, To the Epicureans, however, 
the Falerniai] wine seemed better when treated in the Egyp- 
tian manner ; and the wine of Taenia was considered stronger 
and spicier than the Alexandrian. Bnt even in the time of 
Ahenseos this culture had almost disappeared, and only that 
of Antylla still had a good name in those days. And even in 
better times, the native wine does not seem to have sufficed for 
home consumption, for Herodotus speaks at length of imported 
wine from Hellas and Phoenicia. The Libyans and Berbers 
probably never knew a grape-culture of their own without 
foreign aid. It is certain that in old times the colonies of the 
Greeks and Carthagenians in the north of Africa were full of 
the grape ; and we shall find further on that the cnlt of 
Bacchus was widespread in Cyrenaica, and that traces of it 
still remain in the ruins. Pliny speaks of vineyards as traces 
of ancient civilization in the mountains of Dyris (Atlas); and 
there are still, more lor the sake of the grapes than the^wine, 
vineyards near Tunis, in the rich district of Derna, as well as 
the poor one of Mafa, in Fezzan. In Mauritania, as Strabo 
reports, were found grapes a yard in circumference. In the 
oases, Belzoni saw grapes, and in that of Siwah they are excel- 
lent, as other southern fruit also. In recent times the Por- 
tuguese brought the grape, with other fruit, as well to 
Madeira and the Canary Isles as to Abyssinia. There the 
poorness of the plant itself, no less than the peculiar use of it, 
shows plainly what a stranger it is. Thus, also, among the 
Griquas it is cultivated by the missionaries only, who, confin- 
ing, as they are wont, all civilization which they offer to the 
elements of Christian religion, give to grape-culture also only 
a Christian significance, planting the vine merely for its use 
at the Communion table. The celebrated Cape wine is a 
different matter. Enlightened French emigrants, Protestants 
driven from home by the Edict of Nantes, first planted the grape 
there; but it is not certain whether the vines came both from 
Persia and from the Rhine, or only from Shiraz. The climate 
seems there to favor the culture of the grape extremely ; the 
soil, however, appears most unfavorable, and Colebrooke, in 
his work on the condition of the Cape of Good Hope, ascribes 



16 

the earthy taste, which makes the Cape wines unpleasant, to a 
substratum of the soil, otherwise rather good, consisting in 
many places of layers of clay and sand that has been washed 
up. And what is not spoiled by the soil, seems to have been 
spoiled by the indolence of the Dutchmen, or some other dis- 
advantage with which the African country is cursed. A sort 
of fairy-tale is told of the totally wrong manner of planting 
the first vineyard ; and still not even the example of the far 
better Constantia wine has induced men to make vineyards in 
rockier spots. 

III. 

The Degenerate Culture of the Grape and the Art of 
Drinking IN China. 

If the learned men of China can be trusted, the grape- 
vine jpaust have been known in their country more than a 
thousand years B. C. They refer to this in old books, the 
" Tshu-ly " and the "Shi-King;" but as to the latter, that 
seems everywhere to refer to- the wine made of various grains, 
which is almost exclusively used in China. 

At all events, it seems to be proved by the most trustworthy 
witnesses that rice-wine is older in China than the wine of 
grapes ; for while the highest age that can be assigned to wine is 
only given bj' the doubtful testimony of the supposed author 
of the '' Tshu-ly," Tshu-Kang, who mounted the throne 
1122 B. C, the invention of rice-wine is set down to the 
Dynasty Hia, 2209 (1716 B. C). This also accords with expe- 
rience elsewhere, for beer of various kinds (and the grain- 
wines of the Chinese are nothing else, except that thej fre- 
quently mix them with all sorts of fruit, including grapes) 
everywhere became the national drink in advance of wine, as 
brandy and other liquors follow wine. Grape-brandy has, it 
appears, been known in China only since the seventh century of 
our era, but is now a favorite beverage with the common China- 
men, and is drunk by them warm and almost as strong as 
alcohol in large quantities, in spite of its very unpleasant 
taste. For only a comparatively short time the grape-culture 



17 

seems to have flourislied in China. The Chinese always 
have had their grain-wines and their brandy more at heart. 
The inventor of the rice-wine was, it is true, banished by the 
Emperor Yn-te, because he well foresaw the sad consequences 
of its use, and yet the beverage has kept its place to the 
present day as an ornament of the Chinese table. It is like 
this people, who live on nothing but that water-plant, rice, and 
tea, to cling with the same obstinacy as they do to all old 
•orders and customs, to this beverage, which is something 
between brandy and water, and taken neither hot nor cold. 
These wines are said to have a very bad effect ; they fatten at 
first, but then bring on consumption, entire loss of appe- 
tite, and at last complete emaciation and death. It was 
natural, therefore, that the paternal Emperors, who looked 
after their subjects as after real children, and in whose laws 
dietetics always played a great part, should forbid these in- 
jurious beverages, and several of the Emperors set the good 
example. The third Emperor of the Dynasty Mant-shu, 
Yong-Tsheng, devoted one of his ten commandments to this 
subject, and the great Kanghi says in his writings that, despite 
his pleasure in them, he never became accustomed to wine and 
spirits. At feasts and ban'quets he only touched it with his 
lips, and so might well boast of not drinking any at all. 
Moreover, this wine consumes a great deal of grain, which in 
a densely peopled country, whose very existence depends upon 
its supplies of grain, is a matter of some importance, so that 
perhaps from this higher standpoint also there was good 
reason for the prohibition. But the most important reason 
lies deeper still, and was still more carefully considered ; and 
as this chiefly concerns the wine from grapes, we must 
first cast another glance at grape-culture. 

'■ We have seen above that grapes existed of old in China. 
The just-mentioned learned, philosophical and humane 
Kanghi himself shows, in his remarks on natural history in 
China, that grapes came to China from the West, and 
that before his time but few kinds had existed in China, 
and boasts that he had sent for three new varieties to Ha-mi, 
as he would rather introduce a new fruit into his country than 



18 

"build a hundred porcelain towers. He observes, also, that 
these grapes degenerate in the south, but do well in the 
north in, dry and stony soil. The experiences of the mis- 
sionaries in Pekin, however, were unfavorable ; the soil was 
against them, as well as the remarkably rough climate, and 
possibly they went to work awkwardly in other respects also. 
For it is certain that these very southern provinces once had 
many grape-vines, and the wine made in Shan-si, Shen-si, 
Petshe-ly, Shantong, Honan and Hu-Kuang, put into well- 
closed vessels and buried in the ground, could be preserved 
for years. This goes to prove an observation we shall often 
find repeated, that after a time the most favorable soil no 
longer suffices for the grape, which demands a certain youth- 
ful power in the soil in which it is to flourish most luxu- 
riantly. In the older and middle ages of China we therefore 
find the grape-wine mentioned in all their songs, and that of 
the river Kiang is specially praised. It is known that at 
difierent periods vines were introduced from Samarcand, 
Persia, Thibet, Kashgar, Turfu and Ha-mi, and the annals 
themselves plainly mention wine under the reign of Emperor 
Wu-ty, Dynasty Han, 140 B. C. From there we can follow 
up its use almost from reign to reign, and after the already- 
mentioned Kanghi, the last dynasty shows still more rulers who 
introduced new grapes from distant countries, so that the 
southern provinces begin to restore their old grape-culture 
again. But the grapes in Ha-mi and Shan-si seem mostly 
to be used for raisins, and what we occasionally hear of 
their condition in Hoai-lai-hien — that their berries are of 
gigantic size, like plums, with a thick skin, and that their 
size is not so much due to the climate as to the fact that the 
vines are grafted on mulberry-trees, and that they ripen as 
early as April, May and June — all this seems highly char- 
acteristic of a degenerate culture, and gives us the poorest 
possible opinion of the wine that might be made there. 
Highly, therefore, as the Jesuits attempt to praise grape- 
culture in China, we can yet have but little belief in it ; but in 
the Middle Ages it must have been all the more brilliant. The 
reports concerning it are, however, wrapped in a certain ob- 



19 

scurity, from which no fact stands out clearly. The grape, it 
is said, flourished only too well in China — it caused various 
revolutions. As often as the Government had ordered the 
destruction of such trees as obstructed the grain-fields, the use- 
less grape-vine was also included, and, if memory served the 
reporters, that plant was several times specially mentioned. 
It is certain that the destruction .of the vine in most of the 
provinces, under various reigns, was carried so far that even 
the recollection of it was lost, and this induced the belief 
that the grape had been brought to China but recently from 
the Occident. It is plain that there was always a pretense 
put forward that the grape-wine detracted from the culture of 
the grain, although, with some care, the same area might 
probably have yielded a nobler beverage than was made of the 
rice and barley, grown where the grape had been rooted out. 
But the intellectual effect of it was evidently feared. In so 
regular a clock-work as the Chinese State, what might be 
more dangerous than irregular movements so very easily pro- 
duced by wine in the heads of people ? Even the making 
of the grape-wine was often prohibited. When that did not 
avail, its use was limited to feasts, banquets and sacrifices, and 
to guests and infirm old age. Not enough with this, at such 
feasts a special Mandarin was set over even the princes of the 
blood to keep watch over and not permit them to drink more 
than three glasses. And still more, certain ceremonies were 
prescribed, long healths and salutations, circumstantial rites, 
at which a free-thinker, as the Jesuits say, may laugh, but in 
in which a philosopher must admire the wisdom of the law- 
giver, and the subtlety with which he banished intemperance, 
and that injudicious freedom of speech which is its inseparable 
companion, from among the people ! We have seen the 
effects of grain-wine in China. The wise Emperor Kanghi 
complains that it makes one stupid and dull and confuses the 
brain. And how much more terrible still must have been the 
effect of the grape-wine ! This is probably meant in a certain 
book of the Dynasty Tshu, where it is said in warning ex- 
planation of the well-founded apprehensions of the Chinese 
Government, that if a spirit of rebellion and insurrection was 



20 

then rife among the people of China, if they had lost mnch 
of their old virtues and principles, the cause of it must be 
sought solely in the effects of wine. Away, therefore, with 
that cursed boldness which betrays a tongue set free by wine ; 
that noisy action and damnable confidence in one's own 
strength; that rising of the spirit, which must have appeared 
to the learned Emperor as synonymous with confusion ; the 
impudent overstepping of the good old laws of etiquette; the 
wild breaking away from the good old ruts ! How should 
not all this, which was inseparably connected with wine, seem 
to the philosophical head of the State in his immovable peace 
and calmness, and to the council of his ministerial pedants, 
extremely dangerous to the State, and worthy of being an- 
nihilated to the last trace? l^eed we be surprised, therefore, 
at the stories of abstinence told of the Emperors? It was 
their duty to give a good example to the people. Had not 
their prophet, Confucius, left these words of moderation — 
that coarse rice for food, and water for drink, and the curved 
arm for a pillow, were enough for happiness ! 

And thus the Governments of China succeeded in estab- 
lishing, even in very early times, a condition of submissive 
decency everywhere. They confined wine to festive occa- 
sions, and we learn from the "Shi-King" that to the guest 
was granted the honor of the cup; even to him, however, 
in but the spare measure that chimes with the sordid miser- 
liness of the Chinaman, who could never have understood the 
art of drinking, if for no other reason than because, he has 
nothing of the liberality which the Orient calls the " flowing 
hand." They say in a guest-song : — 

" A noble guest lias come beneath our roof ; 
For liim melodious tunes were played. 
So long as thus it pleased our guest, 
And with the cup I sought to cheer him. 

" The sound of music rang incessantly, 
And ever was the cup kept full ; 
And in our honor did he empty it ; 
The wine was light and pure, and harmed him not." 



21 

And in another place : — 

"A liare is roasting on tlie spit ; 
A pumpkin leaf we go to pick ; 
A banquet we prepare our guest, 
And fill liis cup with wine the best." 

We have seen from, other authorities that wine was chiefly 
reserved to old age, and here it is confirmed : — 

" Serve round the circle the wine-cup, ye bearers ; 
With the spiced wine the aged refresh them ; 
In it their youth and their vigor reviving, 
But your own youth surely needs no concoction." 

Even at the feasts where wine was permitted, its use was 
limited by cautions restrictions. AH meals and banquets were 
subjected to rules of etiquette almost as rigorous as those which 
the Court is accustomed to give its ambassadors. The careful 
law is extended to the very preparation and serving of the 
viands, and everywhere^ clips the wings of the art of cooking 
and of drinking. If the Emperor U-tse gave his warriors a 
banquet to gain their favor, he still preserved the most rigid 
order of rank in the seating, and the food and the drink; and 
the Emperor Tsi-she-hoang is praised for restoring the old 
invitations and banquets, where every single ceremony took its 
dne course in beginning and end, so that a modest and decent 
joy beamed in all eyes. To give a model for domestic feasts, 
they order public ceremonies in all the cities ; Mandarins pre- 
side at them ; the law invites scholars and distinguished citizens 
to them ; and here, too, the rites are prescribed down to the 
minutest detail. The- chief object of these feasts is to signal- 
ize merit, to preserve morality, and the friendly as well as 
conventional proprieties. The President reads aloud for that 
purpose, in the name of the Emperor, certain paragraphs of the 
law, the introduction to which specially calls to mind that the 
gathering is not really made for the sake of the enjoyment of 
meat and drink, but to revive loyalty to the Prince, and more 
to the same effect ; and all their songs and pieces of music 
have reference to that. A single drinking-song, of somewhat 
more liberal spirit, I found in the " Shi-King,'' but in that 
the translator may possibly have had a large share, especially 



22 

in regard to the form. The contents are very characteristic of 
Chinese poetry in general, whose bare realism offers a remark- 
able contrast to that of the Orientals : — 

' ' Water, the fresh, 
Is drunk by the fish — 
The carps and the pikes ; 
And each noble knight 
At the board 
Drinks water pure and bright. 

" Water, the fresh, 
Is drunk by the fish — 
The eels and the salmon ; 
You sad fellows all 
At the board, 
Drink, till for more ye shall call. 

" Water, the fresh, 
Is drunk by the fish — 
The perch and the barbel ; 
Ye good chums of mine 
At the board, 
Now drain ye the pearl of the wine. 

" Water, the fresh. 
Is drunk by the fish — 
The trout and the merlin ; 
But we boys gay and bold 
At the board 
Drain waves of the wine untold." 

Bnt, even in their highest ecstasy, the brave drinkers still 
preserve a sort of calmness ; and if there is anything that can 
be called a sober intoxication, this seems to be excellently 
expressed in the following very characteristic song : — 

" Now our guests are growing tipsy ; 
Decency is at an end ; 
Sparks from out their eyes are darting. 
And the babbling tongues unbend. 

" Crooked caps shake back and forward, 
Hung but by a single hair ; 
Stiff old legs the dance are trying. 
Hoarse old voices sing out fair. 



23 

" At the first cup wliicb tliou drainest, 
Didst thou seem transformed to me ; 
If another now thou'dst empty, 
Wholly tipsy would st thou be. 

" Truly thou dost shame me sorely ; 
Sober quite you see I stay ; 
But if thou wilt take me homeward, 
Lead me gently on the way. 

" True, thou lead'st me into ditches, 
But my own head reels at last.; 
Hold me by thy arm supported, 
By thy pig-tail hanging fast." 

With this extreme point of drinking I will close. This 
dull intoxication is about what a warm grain-wine would pro- 
duce, and fits the disagreeable character of the Chinese as 
well as the anecdote occurring in another song, where one 
whose invited guests do not appear at the right time, is 
actually rejoiced to think he may now drink up his wine 
alone. The value of wine for social enjoyment can scarcely 
be known there, where conventionality ties the tongues, where 
there is a tribunal of ceremonies, and where the tea-kettle is 
forever on the fire, which among us, too, fosters only em- 
broidery, gossip and nervous debility. And then the greedy 
desire for physical enjoyment is the one thing which makes 
the Chinaman love his wine and his spicy concoctions, and 
which in this point has ever driven him into a never-before- 
heard-of opposition against his Government. How dreadful it 
is, however, to see these crude and childish remnants of anti- 
quated customs most closely knit now with the most refined 
and elaborate tastes, wants and habits thus in vogue among 
the people, together with secret and most pernicious vices, and 
yet to find that not a single voice can be raised against it, be- 
cause, with the most subtle cunning, down to the very limits 
of physical needs, every expression of indignation or of joy 
has been forbidden by law ! 



